Every weekend, either Saturday or Sunday, the chickens get moved.
The purple coop is stationary. After its little tumble during the initial move out of the pole barn, Vince has it anchored . . pipes attached and driving deep into the ground. It isn’t going anywhere . . I hope! 🙂 We move the run around the coop and Vince has all kinds of positions for the stairs to the coop. He has to get real creative sometimes to get it to all work out but it always works out. That’s how things work for engineers, you know?
Here’s a setup with a long “tunnel” to get to the stairs. The chickens don’t mind . . they probably don’t even notice.
Vince always moves the coop over to the left just a little but when it gets to where it was last week (the deadest spot right in front there in the first picture), we can’t go any farther to the left because the pole barn is there. So, he has to move it all the way back to its starting position which is a long ways . . as far as moving a chicken run goes. He usually moves it an inch or two at a time with all the chickens in the run.
Since it was so far to go this time, we decided to lure them into the coop and close them up so we could move the run without them in it and wouldn’t have to worry about crunching their little feet. A few chunks of bread in the coop and nine of the hens were inside the coop. One . . just one contrary hen wouldn’t come inside, even for a piece of my homemade whole wheat bread!
Guess which one it was . . Smokey! Dang that’s one hard headed, uncooperative, belligerent chicken. Remind me to tell you the production she makes when she decides to lay an egg . . which doesn’t happen with any regularity! We loved smoked chicken! 🙂
Anyway, it wasn’t so hard to move the run with just one chicken in there but it sure would be nice for Smokey to be cooperative and go along with the plan . . just once!
One thing I’ve been meaning to say . . for those who have asked about the purple coop – when Vince first built it, we both thought he’d made it too tall off the ground but it’s actually perfect. That’s how things work for engineers, you know! They’re perfect even when they don’ t know it! When Vince cleans out the coop, he just parks the wheel barrow underneath the door, rakes all the straw and droppings into the wheel barrow and doesn’t have any hassle with having to pick up the straw. He couldn’t have planned that any better if he tried! Engineers can be so good to have around . . most days! 🙂
Deb says
We love our engineers, but lets face it, they need us to keep them “grounded”! Mine for sure, anyway!
Karen sewprimitive says
That is so cool about the height of the coop and cleaning it. Also the rotation of the run is marvelous. Bet it won’t be long before Vince puts some little wheels on it.
pdudgeon says
Looks like Vince is smart to wear a face mask when cleaning out the coop. don’t want him breathing in any of that stuff.
Glad that things are going well with the chickens!
A.L. says
That last picture is a great example of why I DON’T have chickens. Sorry–but I am not cleaning poop of any sort.
Vince is a great guy to do that!!!
Maria Stahl says
I assume he’s composting all that lovely stuff? It’s full of great nutrients for the compost pile!
My hens are so GROUCHY right now. They complain all day long. At least 2, maybe 3 of the 6 are moulting and very uncomfortable. So funny. Today I told them that as old and tough as they are, it would take several days of simmering, but they still CAN be soup, and they’d better watch it. They quieted right down. A few minutes later they were back to complaining loudly and all I did was yell “SOUP!!” out the window and they quieted down again!
quiltpixie says
so call me stupid but, having moved the coop as far to the left as it would go why not simply move it counterclockwise until it can’t move any further that way and then go back to clockwise???
Cynthia H., El Cerrito, CA says
One of the engineers I worked with in the ’90s said one day, “You know, us engineers…we aren’t real romantic sorts. We’re terrible boyfriends, but good husband material.”
Ladies, you know it’s true: this man is earning many, MANY “husband points”! 🙂
Maria Stahl says
My daddy is an engineer, or was, before he retired. He has been a husband for 55 years now (to the same woman!). He’s so crazy about Mom. 🙂 So I would agree.
Also I dated an engineer once and it was too boring to bother sticking around to see what kind of husband he’d make. So I guess I agree on the boyfriend issue too. Heheh.
Mary says
I’m just amazed at how much work you get out of Vince considering the chickens were your idea!